J Chester Armstrong
With collectors including President Bush, Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, Olivia Newton-John, and Nick Nolte - all counted as his friends, J Chester Armstrong (Skip) has come a long way since he began teaching at a YMCA camp in the 1970's. While at Spirit Lake, Washington, he wanted to introduce the ... moreWith collectors including President Bush, Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, Olivia Newton-John, and Nick Nolte - all counted as his friends, J Chester Armstrong (Skip) has come a long way since he began teaching at a YMCA camp in the 1970's. While at Spirit Lake, Washington, he wanted to introduce the campers to Native American Northwest totem poles. Unable to find anyone to teach the class, he decided to teach it himself and found he had a natural gift for shape and proportions. "I can 'see' the forms in the raw logs. It is like Michelangelo says, just take away everything that doesn't look like 'nine horses running'."
And for the last 40 years, chainsaw, grinders, and chisels in hand, he has done just that.
Chester Armstrong's roots run deep in Central Oregon, his chosen home. Born and raised in Berkeley, California, he attended UC Berkeley in the 1960's and graduated with a degree in poetic theory and philosophy. His travels eventually brought him to Oregon where he found a place where "the stars are not drowned out by city lights". He has lived there for the past 35 years with singer songwriter wife, Anastacia.
"I am hooked on wood sculpture," says Armstrong. Out of local Oregon woods (juniper,maple, pine, and walnut), he carves the world he sees around him. "Eagles, ospreys, wolves, cougars, coyotes howling at the moon, herons perched majestically at the river's edge, -- the magic of life. This is what moves me. This and the wild herds of mustangs that inhabit the west of my imagination."
Armstrong is best known for his horses, thundering herds moving rhythmically as one. Although his horses look like horses, he says "the art of sculpture is not to recreate the world verbatim, but to interpret it." His sculptures are charged with movement and emotion.
"Wood sculpture, like stone sculpture, is a subtractive process. You 'take away' to reveal the form within. Arduous and demanding, it requires both artistic inspiration and physical perspiration. It is yielding but not forgiving. It does not allow for mistakes."
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